(From our teammates on June 17th)

Just wanted to send you all a quick update to let you know that we have been approved to continue to move on with the finishing of Harbor Home! The Fire Marshal came by on Monday and approved us for everything that has been done so far and has given us the OK to do everything we need to. (which is not the norm, without the plumbing being entirely installed)

Today begins the day of putting on the drywall on the walls. Dave has worked tirelessly (not really – he’s exhausted!) to put the ceilings up and insulation in. That is pretty much finished in time for the team to come and help with the walls now. We are so thankful for the money that this team has raised to allow us to buy the drywall for the walls. They have been a real blessing to us both financially and physically!

There have been so many who have given towards this project and we are forever grateful to you all! Many we know; a few we have not yet met! We are in a continual state of wonder and amazement to see this project coming closer and closer to a place where we could move in! Our goal is still by the end of the year! We do need a plumber soon who will come in put in the water lines for us. Please be praying about that. Like Dave has said “Looking ahead seems impossible; Looking back is incredible!”

So be praying for safety for this team! Thank God for providing them. It has boosted our morale to have physical help on sight! Thank God for the many provisions financially.

If you would like to learn more or would like to get involved in seeing this ministry home completed, take a look at this short video where Dave shares some more details about the ministry vision of Harbor Home.

]]>http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2015/06/29/answered-prayer-for-harbor-home/feed/0“Here I Am …. Send my Sister!!”http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2015/03/11/here-i-am-send-my-sister/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2015/03/11/here-i-am-send-my-sister/#commentsThu, 12 Mar 2015 04:43:41 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=529
“Into the Buddhist Mind” – Branson, MO
A few weeks ago, we were visiting a nearby college for a ...]]>

“Into the Buddhist Mind” – Branson, MO

A few weeks ago, we were visiting a nearby college for a missions challenge event & ran into an “old” young friend of ours! Noah came walking up to Shannah & I with a big smile on his face…
“Noah! What!? I didn’t know that you were studying here! What an amazing surprise!”

Noah had joined us, along with 65 other students & faculty from College of theOzarks, for an incredible time of discovery & challenge. The evening began with a traditional Thai meal, served with a unique twist (our secret). Over the next few hours, students & professors had the opportunity to look into the incredibly difficult realities of Buddhism – one of the world’s largest religious systems that Satan has created to keep people from understanding their needfor Jesus Christ. Weshared with the students & faculty at College of the Ozarks what NTM’s Missionary Training Center is all about. Our pre-field training exists to prepare people for the difficult task of reaching people groups whose minds & hearts have been conditioned to think in such a way that they will not understand, believe or accept the good news about Jesus Christ.

You see, for thousands of years Satan has been engineering “traditional belief systems” & all the major “world religions” in order to keep people from a real relationship with God that they can only experience through His Son, Jesus Christ. Navigating these worldviews & religious systems in order to accurately communicate the message of salvation through Christ – is a very complicated process – not for the faint of heart. It would exhaust the most determined disciples & quickly bring anyone of us to the end of our own strength. Only God can accomplish this kind of transformation in the hearts of lost people. And He is doing it through the labor of many humble, faithful servants who have laid down their “life’s agenda” & taken up the cause of Christ to build His Church among “all peoples!”

Our prayer for these students at “Hard Work U” (the affectionate term for C of O), as it is for ALL those we have opportunity to meet, is that the Lord would raise up laborers for His harvest (Luke 10:2). Perhaps God would use YOUR life to reach a people group who have no access to the gospel? Do you have questions about what being a “Career Missionary” would involve? Visit NTM’s Career Missions page to read more about what being a missionary involves.

Like me a few years back, you may have already counted yourself out, saying,“I could never do that! Being a missionary is not for me.”

…or…

“Lord, PLEEEEEASE don’t make me be a missionary! I’ll do anything for you, but please not that! My life would be miserable…”

…or…

“Okay, here I am Lord — send my sister! (or anyone but me)…”

Yeah I said all those things and much more! It’s almost funny looking back now, recounting the conversations I had with God. I wonder where I even got the ideas that had formed in my mind about what life “must be like” for a missionary. But for some reason, I had developed a natural response to Christ’s final orders (Matthew 28:18-20) that couldn’t possibly include the idea of Him taking ME away from my home & comfort zone for the sake of His gospel. I had no idea what missionary life was really like.

This is true of most people I talk to about missions. Most people have ideas about what missionaries’ lives must be like…but like the ideas I too had allowed into my head, they are so far from the real thing. I’d like to share with you a realistic picture of what it could look like to GO as a missionary to an unreached people group. Take 30 minutes to step into the story of the story of some ordinary people who had ordinary carriers & ordinary dreams for their lives…but whose lives collided with God’s heart & stepped out in faith to experience the extraordinary work that only He can do!

After watching this video, I’d challenge you to honestly ask the Lord, “Do you want me to go? Would you purpose to use my life to reach people with the gospel who have never had access to it?” His answer might be “Yes” – it might be something entirely different than what you see in this video, but the reality is, MOST of us have never asked the question. Would you ask the Lord about this? He would use your life, in some way, to reach people groups like these. Ask Him today what role(s) He might have for you.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to join us in praying that the Lord would raise up LABORERS to send into His harvest! This was His idea for recruitment – prayer! If we pray, He will answer!

Stay tuned for more information on how to be involved in planting churches among all peoples…

As always, if you have questions, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!
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http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2015/03/11/here-i-am-send-my-sister/feed/0…But the Lord directs his tires.http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2014/09/26/september-update/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2014/09/26/september-update/#commentsFri, 26 Sep 2014 19:42:17 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=499
Hello all, we wanted to give a brief update on our life & ministry as we move into ...]]>

Hello all, we wanted to give a brief update on our life & ministry as we move into the fall. The verse above accurately represents the journey we’ve been on, including the past month as we have been on the road. On August 16th, we said goodbye (for now) to a spiritual leader & hero of the faith, Josh’s grandfather Perry Hughes. Though there is much sorrow with his passing, we rejoice that his earthly struggle is over. We look forward to joining grandpa in the presence of the Lord someday! For now, for us, the battle rages.

These past several months have been a tremendous season of personal growth for us. Many times God has brought us to a place where all we could do is trust Him to guide our every move. Our Mobilization team has felt the effects of significant leadership transitions, both in NTM & also in leadership at the Missionary Training Center). We are learning to trust the Lord’s timing with the work He has set our hands to & we are confident that He is raising up laborers for His harvest (Luke 10:2).

You might be wondering, “What’s happening with AWANA?” We are excited to see Awana moving forward & getting more involved in church-planting ministry! Some friends of ours have helped to start an initiative at Awana”To multiply healthy churches among all peoples through the catalyst of children, youth & families.” We’re thrilled about this new organization called ZimZam Global & we believe that God will have us to do much together in the years ahead to equip church planters around the world. We have been prayerfully considering the invitation to join this new initiative. But we are confident that God has placed us where He wants us (mobilizing with NTM at the MTC) & that He will fulfill all of His purposes for us in His perfect timing & way. This is clearly a season where God has ministry for us here as mobilizers, but is also preparing us for what is down the road.

We have been visiting ministry partners & supporting churches this past month & will return to Missouri in early October to continue with our team at the Ministry Advancement Center. If you would like to hear more details about anything or would like to catch up more, please contact us! We would love to hear from you.

They got us all loaded up on the huge Boeing 777 for the overseas flight. Just before we pulled back from the gate, our pilot announced that we had to de-board, because certain signal lights on the tail weren’t working. Thus began our 2 hour delay – we switched to a different gate where another plane was sitting available, but they had to clean it & transfer all the baggage. Fortunately they bought us off with some fruit snacks & granola bars from Sam’s club, so everyone was happy when we loaded up the 2nd time.

After our 14 1/2 hr flight across the Atlantic, we were supposed to have a 2 1/2 hour layover in S. Africa to make our transfer & check in to a diff airline for our flight to Zimbabwe. Instead, we now arrived while our next flight was boarding! I was sure we had missed our connection, but the airline was determined to get us there (whew, kudos to the airline on this one). They had a guy waiting at our gate as we got off the plane & as soon as 3 of us were with him, he took off running with 2 of them! I stayed behind to wait for the last 3, informed them that we were having a race. We sprinted across the terminal – down connecting corridors & into the next terminal. We went through tunnels & security stops (got some grace at the security check – they just scanned our bags & sent us running again). I was sure that this airline guy was a runner from Jamaica, cuz we could hardly stay in sight of each other & keep up with him! We were all spread out across a couple hundred yards. A couple of the guys were struggling. My good friend Tom was carrying a duffle bag the whole way (no rollers), so about half way across the airport, we swapped burdens & kept running – it was a good ol’ fashioned relay race! We finally got to our gate & they had delayed our ride 15 minutes just for US! (Thanks to another great airline!) We were all gasping for breath & laughing about what just happened. As we boarded the plane we got mixed reviews. Some people gave us looks that said, “Oh of course these white boys woulddelay the flight. Probably got lost…” Others wanted to give us a standing ovation. We all gladly took our seats & were just happy to make our flight. Last time I missed a flight to Zimbabwe (13 years ago), we were delayed 2 days in Europe waiting for another flight.

Our last flight was a short one – 90 minutes max. As we came in for our landing we were surprised yet again. The wind was pushing us around quite a bit, so it felt like we were landing crooked. As soon as our rear landing gear thumped down on the airstrip, we got pushed back in our seats as the plane thrust forward! The engines were back at full power & the nose gear never touched the ground. We were airborne again & everyone was worried, but a nervous silence settled in as everyone was imagining what might be wrong & what might happen on the next go-around. Finally the pilot came on & calmly explained that it was airline procedure to lift off again when landing too deep in the run-way. He reassured us that there was nothing to worry about. There was a collective sigh of relief followed by all sorts of laughter & conversation. Everybody was sharing their theories of what really just happened (the co-pilot getting some extra training on a touch & go, etc). That was a 1st for all of us – to have the plane touch down on just the rear wheels & take off again! We bounced around on the 2nd landing (another nervous silence followed by resounding laughter across the cabin & a large applause). Too fun… We finally made it to Zimbabwe! I slept about 1-4 hours out of the whole trip (totally lost track of time), so was pretty tired.

Our host Stephen & 2 other guys met us at the airport. They had to wait a while as we got our visas & such. Everybody else from the plane went through, got their bags & left in the time it took us 6 guys to get our visitors’ visas! I was literally the last person to come out the doors (they shut the terminal behind me). Needless to say, we were ready for some R&R.

Stephen brought us to a nice little hotel over by his office. We got checked in & up to our rooms just after 11pm local time. The city was “working on the water,” so we didn’t have hot water. They did, however, have an abundance of cold water & I was determined to shower off before bed. So I mustered up some courage & took an ice cold shower before hitting the hay. My roomy Tom got a good laugh listening to me gasping for breath while battling the freezing cold water. Haha, also brought back many fond memories of jumping into high mountain lakes in Idaho or washing in frigid mountain streams while hunting.

Finally fell asleep…ahh, time to recharge! Both Tom & I sprung awake a few hours later – as we started to get up for a new day, we realized that it was still dark out. Checked our clock…rats! It was only 3:30 am. He managed to get back to sleep, but I’ve been laying here for over 2 hours now – my mind is wide awake. I’m definitely gonna be feeling the lag this afternoon. For sure gonna take melatonin tonight. I spent some time in prayer & then decided to write home while I have the chance – figured my eyes would get tired & I would fall back asleep……..nope. Annnd…now it’s light out again. Oh boy. Gonna be an interesting day.

We get, that’s just the “interesting” stuff that has happened so far. But please pray for me these next few days. I’m the tag along to this group, so I’m just trying to learn what I can about all that these guys have been discussing for the past 9 months! And they are here seeking to learn what they can from Stephen & his ministry team – none of us have a clear picture of the next several days. So it should be quite a time to see the Lord work. Please pray that I would have wisdom to listen well & learn all that I can. I know that God will bless a humble, servant’s heart – so please pray for me this way.

I still remember arriving here on my first overseas missions trip. Hard to believe the last time I was here was 13 years ago! It’s pretty cool to be back.

On Monday:

I will write again hopefully – explaining a bit of what God has been doing the past couple days. Had a great 2 days in Zimbabwe & now in Zambia for a conference! Wow, we’ve had some incredible meetings so far & God is doing great things! Update again soon (& it will be shorter).

Love in Christ,

Josh

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http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2014/04/01/421/#commentsTue, 01 Apr 2014 07:05:05 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=421
A Vision is Born…
We wanted to update you on some exciting things that have been happening & some ...]]>

A Vision is Born…

We wanted to update you on some exciting things that have been happening & some requests for prayer.

Pursuing NTM & Awana partnership…

Our continued pursuit of bringing NTM & Awana into a greater partnership has been a bumpy ride for us. Leaders of both organizations have been very positive about collaborating on foreign fields. However, NTM is not in a good place to pursue an organizational partnership with Awana right now, and as we realized this, we were a bit discouraged, yet still confident in the vision that God has placed on our hearts. We are still trusting the Lord to continue leading us to connect the dynamic ministry of Awana with the time-tested experience of NTM to plant maturing churches amongst unreached people groups.

The GREAT News…

Awana Clubs International has been largely reorganized in the past few years – now called Awana Global – and we never anticipated what God would do through this process. As part of this reorganizing, Awana Global is helping to parent a new organization to focus on cross-cultural church planting – a “mission arm” to engage churches around the world that are using the Awana ministry & to equip & empower them to multiply their impact through church planting! This is essentially the very vision we’ve been pursuing for many years now! We just never anticipated an entire organization being formed to focus on carrying out this vision.

God is doing some amazing things in launching this new Missions Initiative! Awana Global has seen the importance of equipping pioneer church planters in global churches & have asked some key NTM staff to come to Awana to help develop & lead this new initiative. 3 key NTM leaders came over to Awana this past year to answer this call for help. They have been working for many months now to set up this new organization. They have been traveling the world with leaders of Awana Global & continue to meet with key leaders around the world. Wow, there’s so much to explain, but we will continue to do this over time.

Where Do We Fit In All This?

We have been asked to join this team & to be a part of this new church planting initiative. The President of this new organization (Dave) was the NTM leader who recruited us to join the NTM Mobilization Team that we have been a part of since last January. He is the man that I have been working with these many years to pursue this vision with the leadership of Awana Global. As Dave & these men have been working with Awana to set up this non-profit 501C3, we have continued to work with our mobilization team in Missouri, exposing people to tribal church planting & helping them engage in reaching the unreached. We met with our team a while back & they are totally supportive of us transitioning to work with this church planting initiative through Awana Global. We continue to trust the Lord to lead us in how & when to make this transition. This is the very vision we were sent out to pursue! We just didn’t anticipate that it would play out this well…

Trip to Africa NEXT MONTH!!

The leaders of this Missions Initiative have asked Josh to travel with them this next month (April 10-18) to Africa, where they will be meeting with the Awana Global African leadership team to discover the next steps for this initiative in Africa. These key meetings are directly in line with how God has been leading our hearts & we felt strongly that God was directing us to answer this call. We said “yes” by faith & Josh will be leaving with them a week from Thursday! Thanks to the faithfulness & generous support of our ministry partners, we are usually able to set aside funds ahead of time for trips like this. However, this trip came at such a short notice that we hadn’t been able to prepare ahead this time. We are trusting the Lord to provide for this trip, as we are confident that Josh is supposed to go.

Please Contact Us…

We would love to share more details with you if you are interested! Feel free to email us at shannah_beaudin@ntm.org or call/text us anytime at (208)871-2509 We would be happy to answer any questions you have & explain more about this exciting vision finally coming to life!

We PRAISE the Lord for all these things that He is doing! We ask that you also please join us in PRAYING:

For wisdom for Josh & the guys as they meet with African mission leaders next month, seeking how we may help to engage, equip & empower our African brothers & sisters for cross cultural church planting.

For God to clearly direct the next steps of this Awana Global missions initiative.

There is an opportunity to help support Josh’s Africa trip. If you would like to contribute towards this trip or if you have any questions for us, feel free to contact us. Contributions for this can be sent as a special gift to New Tribes Mission, designated “for the ministry of Josh & Shannah Beaudin – Africa Trip 2014.”
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http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2014/04/01/421/feed/0Divine Appointmentshttp://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/09/10/divine-appointments/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/09/10/divine-appointments/#commentsTue, 10 Sep 2013 13:53:40 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=410We’re not entirely sure what all God has in store for this, but clearly He is up to something. Just 2 days before leaving Senegal, we met Pastor David who is on staff at a local church in Dakar. He has a clear vision & deep desire to see Africa reached with the Gospel of Christ! He was very interested in the ministries of NTM & Awana Clubs International & asked us many questions about both. It was exciting to witness God at work connecting NTM leaders with visionary African church leaders & building this strategic relationship as God’s people work together to follow Him in making disciples to the “uttermost parts of the earth.” Shortly after we returned to Missouri, we received an email from Pastor David requesting information about the Awana ministry, as it could be a powerful tool in reaching the children & families of Senegal.

It is very interesting that God would set up these “divine appointments” for us, as He has placed on our hearts a strong desire to see the strengths & resources of these two amazing ministries (NTM & AWANA) be more available to assist the Church in Africa & around the world in a strategic way.

We don’t know what all this means or what God has up His sleeve, but we do know that He is at work & we count it a privilege to be engaged with Him in any way we can as He continues to build His Church! Thank you for your partnership with us in the ministry of Expanding the Reach of the Gospel!

Church where Pastor David serves

Please Pray with Us:

For God to give direction to local churches in Senegal & lead them in reaching their country, continent & the world for Christ.

For the building of good healthy relationships between NTM missionaries & local African churches.

That God would give NTM & Church leaders clarity as to how NTM can best serve local African churches in reaching out to unreached people groups.

For open doors to utilize the tools & resources of the Awana ministry in reaching boys & girls & their families for Christ in Senegal.

That God would continue to give us (Josh & Shannah) clarity as to how we fit into all this work & what role He has for us.

Wanna see some fun pictures?

Check out our Africa pictures through our album on Facebook! (W Africa Trip) This will give you a good visual of our time in Senegal!

]]>http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/09/09/africa-pics/feed/0Back from Africa, but not all “here”http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/08/29/back-from-africa-but-not-all-here/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/08/29/back-from-africa-but-not-all-here/#commentsThu, 29 Aug 2013 05:02:10 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=354
Your faithful support of our ministry ...]]>We want to say a huge THANK YOU to our financial ministry partners!

Your faithful support of our ministry was a major factor in making this trip possible for us (enabling us to save ahead for the airfare & travel expenses)!

Thank you also to those of you who gave special gifts to help us to bring “Christmas in July” to our missionary team in Senegal!

It was definitely one of our top highlights being able to share gift bags with all sorts of goodies from home!! They totally enjoyed the gift items that you enabled us to purchase & they all said how meaningful it was that our friends back home would be a part of this! Food items like these mean so much more when they are unavailable & you haven’t had them for so long. You never know how far a package can go to CARE for those who receive it…but we can tell you that this went a long way!

Shopping for the gifts

Look at all the food you helped us buy!

Hefner's opening their gifts

"Is that Beef Jerky!??"

There were also some really cool opportunities that God orchestrated while we were in Senegal. We will be sharing those stories in our next few posts. Some of those stories have to do with: hardships in language study, cultural differences, divine appointments, pastors, planes, peanuts & prayer requests.

Was it worth it?

It’s a joy to report that the purposes for this trip were definitely accomplished! We personally experienced some of the very real struggles of living overseas & at the same time, we witnessed the joys that come when missionaries cling to the Lord in those times & stay the course. We were blessed to be able to visit current works at various stages of seeing a maturing church birthed & established. We also made some great new friends & deepened existing friendships! This was all so rewarding for us & very impactful! We definitely feel more equipped to accurately represent what God is doing in W. Africa, as well as articulate NTM’s overall vision to assist the African church in reaching their continent. We are confident that God had many purposes in sending us to W. Africa – some that aren’t even clear yet. But it has been overwhelmingly evident that He has been at work around us, which makes us really excited about the days ahead!

We have much more to share, but we want to break it up into several shorter posts over the next few weeks, for easier reading. At this point, we’re just touching base to say how grateful we are for you, our incredible ministry partners & friends!

Please Pray:

At this time, we would really appreciate it if you would remember to pray for us in the following areas:

– Sensitivity to the Lord’s guidance as we continue to pursue Him with the vision He’s placed on our hearts for seeing collaboration between NTM & Awana in the USA & around the world. We know that God is moving right now to work out His plan for all this, but we need discernment to distinguish His working from our own ideas. We need your prayers in a big way right now!

Please keeping checking our blog for more fun stories from Africa!

]]>http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/08/29/back-from-africa-but-not-all-here/feed/0A Long 2 Weeks…http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/07/15/a-long-2-weeks/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/07/15/a-long-2-weeks/#commentsMon, 15 Jul 2013 11:27:04 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=336
What an incredible time this has been so far, although we’re pretty tired from our first week ...]]>A Learning Experience…

What an incredible time this has been so far, although we’re pretty tired from our first week in Dakar. We had several opportunities this past week to meet & visit with a number of missionaries who are still fairly new to W. Africa, as well as with NTM leadership here. We have greatly enjoyed sweet fellowship & rewarding conversations with our coworkers here.

Meeting of missionaries who are studying language & culture

We’ve enjoyed meeting their Senegalese friends who are helping them to learn French & Wolof (the official & most widely spoken languages here). We’ve also had great opportunities to experience daily life the way they do on a daily basis. With the help of local Senegalese churches & believers, they are gaining a clearer understanding of how to communicate & function within the context of W. African cultures.

Delwyn & Arielle Griffith & boys

Michael & Nancy Dore & kids

What do these have in common?…

Let’s see…a scooter, taxi, car rapide, demdik, tata, set plas & jaganjai…each of these is a common mode of public transportation here in Senegal. They’re all in competition for business, so you can imagine how getting around in Dakar is anything but boring for these families on a daily basis. Most of them use only these modes of transport & in the past 5 days, we’ve been on just about all of these but a scooter (which I can only imagine is a heavy dose of thrilling mixed with terror!).

The colorful small "busses" are called "car-rapide's" & are the 2nd cheapest way to get around, if you don't mind scrunching a bit.

"Set plas" is the common way to travel when going outside the city. 7 passengers in each car, plus luggage. Pretty economic way to go!

Joel McMartin is an expert packer!

Our own little corner on a jaganjai…

“Is Africa like 150 degrees?”

The heat & humidity definitely saps the energy out of us. It’s not any worse than Missouri in the summer, but men have to wear pants everywhere to be respectful of the culture – (haha, bummer). This next week is probably going to be extremely hot where we’re going (about a 10-hour’s drive from Dakar). We’ll be visiting one of the tribal works where NTM missionaries have been serving now for several years.

How can you pray?

We’re not asking you to pray for cold weather or for us to be comfortable, but simply that we would be open to whatever the Lord wants to teach us & that we could be available for however He wants to use us. We hope to be an encouragement to our coworkers & to emanate the love of Christ to all those around us. We have been so encouraged already to hear from our missionary friends here how God has led them through many struggles & trials of faith already.

Uncomfortable circumstances (like heat & humidity or struggling to do the simple things like buy groceries) are just the means that God uses to reveal what our fleshly nature is really like & remind us how much we truly need Him. God alone can sustain us in our weaknesses & satisfy our every need. And as our friends here have reminded us, He is our complete sufficiency. We can fall on Him whenever we start to feel the weight of our not-enough-ness! We hope and pray that He is filling you with His joy & peace today as you seek His face. Thank you for praying for us as so many of you have been!

We hope to post some more pictures here in the next week or so…

]]>http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/07/15/a-long-2-weeks/feed/0Mobilizing ourselves??http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/06/11/mobilizing-ourselves/
http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/2013/06/11/mobilizing-ourselves/#commentsTue, 11 Jun 2013 21:18:24 +0000http://blogs.ntm.org/josh-beaudin/?p=283
It is our goal, as a mobilization department, to reflect a balanced perspective of NTM works around the ...]]>

It is our goal, as a mobilization department, to reflect a balanced perspective of NTM works around the world as our team exists to mobilize laborers to join these works. The desire of our leadership is to see each team member have an opportunity to see and experience firsthand what God is doing around the world. Because of this our team leaders have asked for each of us team members to make an extended trip overseas. We are writing to share with you that the Lord has given us the opportunity to make a trip next month to Senegal, West Africa! We are very excited about this opportunity that God has given us to be further equipped as mobilizers!

This is the main purpose for us in this trip, to become more equipped & more effective as followers of Christ and as mobilizers who represent His passions & His mission. We hope to visit current works in W. Africa, personally experience the joys & struggles of missionary life overseas, become more familiar with what God is doing in Africa, and also build relationships that will help us to be more effective in praying for His work in Africa.

We’d like to invite you to “come” with us to Africa!
The most significant thing we can think of that will make this trip a success is that God’s people labor in PRAYER for this. And so we ask that you pray with us about this!
1) That we will be as prepared as possible for this trip that is coming upon us suddenly.

2) For discernment & focus in our preparations as we look to…

get needed immunizations

gather needed supplies & gift items for missionaries on the field

learn what practical expressions we can in French & Wolof (the predominant languages of Senegal)

3) That God would use this experience to draw us closer to Him & bind us together as a unit (in our marriage, as a witness & for ministry).

4) That we could be a blessing to our coworkers in W. Africa & a witness for Christ to lost people we encounter.

We also hope to be a blessing to our coworkers in W. Africa while we’re there, and this is where we’d like to invite you to join us! There is an opportunity here for people to invest in this together with us, as we are solely responsible for the cost of this trip out of our own personal resources.

Thanks to our faithful ministry partnership team, we have already been able to put some funds aside for ministry trips like this! Those funds have already been tremendously helpful as we’ve begun to work out the details & do the legwork for this trip. We don’t yet have all of the necessary funds for this trip though, so we want to open it up for others to join in helping us to go, grow & be a blessing to others. Here is a breakdown of the major expenses for this trip:

Round-trip airfare for the two of us

Visas, customs, immunizations, etc.

Food/travel/lodging for 1 month in Senegal

Missionary gifts/care items, requested supplies, etc.

Showing Love: “Christmas in July” ProjectThe part we are really excited about is being able to take several items to care for our co-workers on the field. There are many things that you can’t get in Africa that are very special once you’ve been away from home for so long. We plan to take a couple suitcases full of special “care” items to share with NTM missionaries in Senegal (& Guinea if we get to visit). To give you an idea, here are some of the items we will take with us as we are able:

Want to contribute?
We are excited to share this opportunity with you! We invite you to pray about how God might have you share in this growth experience for us & participate with us in blessing our coworkers in W. Africa. If you would like to contribute to help us bring Christmas in July to our missionaries in W. Africa or just to help with the cost of our tickets, visas, etc. – please contact us & we will share how you can do that. *All gifts to this project are tax-deductible & you will receive a receipt from NTM.

We look forward to updating you as the Lord pulls this together & reporting on how He works in our lives & through us during this visit to Senegal.